First Check Collective
The private network for women building the future of health.
First Check Collective
The private network for women building the future of health.
A media + community platform connecting founders, investors, scientists, and operators shaping the next generation of healthcare.
Women make up 80% of household healthcare decisions. We are the patients, the caregivers, the advocates, and increasingly, the founders building the solutions. We have lived inside the problem long enough to know exactly what is broken, and exactly how to fix it. So why are we still asking for permission to fund it?
The numbers are not subtle. Female founders receive less than two cents of every venture dollar. Women's health, which is a category covering half the global population across their entire lifespan, has only attracted 1.9 percent of digital health funding last year. And yet IVF, hormonal health, mental health, and autoimmune conditions (which disproportionately affect women) remain chronically under-researched, under-diagnosed, and under-funded.
This is not a pipeline problem. The founders are here. Join any health event in NYC, sit in on a pitch day, or scroll the portfolio cos for top VC firms. The ideas are layered. The market is lucrative. The founders are ready. What's missing is the road to getting that FirstCheck is quite lonely at this point.
Here is what I know from watching this ecosystem up close: the funds that are moving fastest are not just writing checks to women. They were built by women who got tired of watching capital flow around them. They didn't wait for the table to get bigger. They built a new one. And they are proving the thesis. Women investing in health is becoming infrastructure for women building in health. Real agency. Real Impact.
The investors who recognize this now will look prescient in ten years. But there is a deeper shift happening that following the startup ecosystem doesn’t fully capture. Women are moving from subject to founder to investor. Not just founding companies, but joining syndicates, taking equity, building angel networks, becoming LPs, launching their own vehicles. Networks are training a new generation of women to write their first check back into women’s innovation & every woman who writes a check to another creates a structure for the next one to do the same.
First Check Collective is building that kind of infrastructure that compounds for decades right here in NYC, where one out of every five women’s health deals are closed.
NYC is the only city where women make up MORE than half of all life sciences workers, including up to manager-level. There is more scientific talent and innovation here run by women than anywhere else on the planet. What’s been missing is the community that makes you visible from the very beginning.
First Check Collective is a private network for women building the future of health.
WHY NOW
Healthcare’s biggest opportunities are being built by people closest to the problem.
The next generation of healthcare companies will come from women who understand the gaps firsthand through interdisciplinary perspectives in science, medicine, lived experience, and years spent operating inside complex care systems.
FirstCheck exists to connect those women with the knowledge, capital, and community needed to build.
WHAT WE FEATURE
Founder Signal
Stories from women building companies redefining health.
Capital Signal
The investors, trends, and opportunities moving healthcare forward.
Builder Signal
The frameworks, lessons, and resources founders need before raising their first check.
Wellness Signal
The intersection of ambitious careers, sustainable leadership, and building without burnout.
🔒 Paid Resources
Worth the investment
Curated tools, agents, workshops, and communities exclusively for First Check Collective (Check below for updates):
SSunlit Strategy Sessions - COMING SUMMER 2026 TO NYC
A private strategy room for women building the future of health.
A highly curated premium experience designed for 6-8 women moving from expertise → entrepreneurship. Small rooms.
High-trust conversations. Real strategy.
Each session brings together women building across:
women's health
diagnostics & therapeutics
biotech
digital health / AI / data
longevity
wellness innovation
healthcare technology
Participants leave with deliverables:
clearer business strategy
stronger founder narrative
investor perspective
accountability pairs
all-day office/content space
small cohort full-day sessions
female wellness session included
F&B included
7+ deliverables
warm investor introduction
Participants can choose from premiums:
newsletter/podcast feature (Add-on)
brand assets & podcast clips (Add-on)
30-day action plan (Add-on)
1:1 mentoring with Natalie Boykoff, PhD Pre/Post-Session (Add-on)
*First Check Collective gets 2 free Add-ons if booked by July 7th
Pages to Follow
Follow these accounts for early access
@firstcheckcollective
Building the future of health for next generation women
founders • investors • operators
media + community + entrepreneurship + wellness
Built by a scientist who became a venture builder
Natalie Boykoff, Ph.D. is a translational scientist and health innovation ecosystem builder working at the intersection of biomedical research, women’s health, and venture.
Her work spans oncology research, startup commercialization, venture scouting, and building communities for women in healthcare innovation.
LinkedIn →Know someone who needs a First Check?
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